My heart breaks…today

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I lost another patient this week. A kind, gentle older man. He always smiled, always winked at me and always gave me a hug. He wouldn’t leave the exam room first…I always had to, he was a gentleman. Even though he was tired and I could tell it he always asked me first how I was and how my house is, etc. He always said, we’ll do whatever it takes. I told him he needed oxygen and he didn’t complain, we told him he needed to go to the nursing home, he didn’t complain. But, how unhappy and difficult that must have been for such an independent hard working man.

Although I’ve had a break from funerals lately it was still painful. My heart breaks for his family. Before I knew it I was crying and then started crying for my Nana. And, then they played this beautiful song “Daddy’s Hands”. Even though I don’t have my father in my life, I do have my mother and even my in-laws. It is them that I thought of during this song. I encourage you to listen to it & think of your parent(s).

Our Staycation

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We are on a staycation of sorts, a “vacation close to your home”. They are re-finishing our floors so we are banned from our house until Friday essentially. The trouble with this vacation is that we are each working each day and there really is nothing vacation-like going on. Besides the fact that the hotel has a tv. If you remember in one of my previous posts we got rid of tv, cable actually. It was SOOO nice to watch the nfl game last night. It’s really weird to have 40 some channels to flip through and, no, there still isn’t anything on.

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What’s even more weird is that the local hotel where we are staying is literally a couple of blocks away from our home. And, its called the “Super 7”, literally. It used to be a Super 8 but was bought by an Indian family (not Native Americans, actual Indians). They are very hard to understand and rumor has it that there are buddha statues and incense in the back room. All of the brochures, etc in the room have the number 8 crossed out with a 7 written instead. Too funny~our staycation that is.

Health Care Reform

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So we have all been hearing about Obama’s plans to hopefully “fix” our health care problems. I won’t go too deep into my thoughts other than one itsy bitsy idea I have that maybe SOMEONE could look into a little deeper. The emergency room is HIGHLY ABUSED!

Think of the money that could be saved if parents would no longer bring in their babies for diaper rashes! Or how about the grown man who came to the er at 3am with an earache, and he hadn’t even tried tylenol yet. Or the grown woman that called about her “cold” and I tried to convince her to wait just 24 hours until one of the clinics opened up. I told her that the er is an awfully expensive place to go for a cold, with her response being “it’s ok, I have medicaid”. In other words, it’s ok….you are going to pay for my er visit.

The er definitely has its place…fractures, lacerations, traumas, you name it. But there are soooo many er visits that are inappropriate. I would say more than 50% as just a guess. Did you know that it costs at least $250 just to turn on the lights in the er when you go there. That doesn’t include ANY supplies that I may use or tests that I may order.

Yes there are supposedly programs in place to help curb er abuse but they aren’t nearly effective enough. How to fix this I DO NOT KNOW. But, I do know there is soooo much money to be saved…

And, the problem is that I haven’t heard or read anything in detail yet about Obama’s ideas about this.

The Story of our Current Life

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Two men in a pickup truck drove into a lumberyard. One of the men walked in the office and said, “We need some four-by-twos.”

The clerk said, “You mean two-by-fours, don’t you?”

The man said, “I’ll go check,” and went back to the truck. He returned in a minute and said, “Yeah, I meant two-by-fours.”

“All right. How long do you need them?” The customer paused for a minute and said, “I’d better go check.”

After a while, the customer returned to the office and said, “A long time. We’re gonna build a house.”

My freshly employed husband

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I always say that my husband is the hardest worker that I know that makes no money. Literally. He is the most generous man I know. The past five years have been a time in our lives where he has tried many different jobs. He wanted to be his own boss. Own his own business. He has his degree in electronic engineering but has been dabbling in other things. We owned the furniture store of course for over two years which he (we really) actually loved but then the economy started to turn and we sold it “just in time”.

He went from that to owning Four Seasons~a lawn and snow business. Meanwhile we opened Heartland Gifts and Decor which we recently closed because of reasons mentioned here. The lawn business actually didn’t do too bad. But we aren’t in the mountains and the snowfall is unpredictable. He only had to push snow three times last winter. Therefore, no financial security whatsoever. And, we have been talking more and more about children and about being more financially secure. He just happened to get a call about a potential job from an old friend.

Back when I was in grad school ten years ago we lived in Grand Island, Nebraska and he was an engineer for EDS, a sign company. They made and repaired, etc the signs that you see at businesses such as gas stations (the electrical ones). Well, then we moved to Great Falls where I got my first position after school and that was that. EDS was recently bought out by a company called SignCo located in Lincoln. A much BIGGER company. They are the ones that installed DLP systems for Penn State University, Mississippi State University and Oregon State University as well as the Detroit Pistons for example. Well, they need another engineer and one of his old friends from the sign company in Grand Island recommended they track Adam down. He has worked just a few days this past month just getting his feet wet. Some of the electrical components are changed of course but all in all he remembers most of it. The first night he came home and told me how GREAT it felt to hold the soldering iron again and that he hoped I didn’t mind if he became a nerd again! WEIRD! So, they tell him Adam, here is your desk and he looks at it and behold: it is the SAME desk he had ten years ago in Grand Island. When they bought out the company everything was bought. He’s excited, I’m excited, I am sure our checking account is excited!

I will miss him being so flexible, though. And I will worry about him commuting. It is about 50 minutes one way. But, it is a necessary change…who knows what the future holds for me too. I just know that good things are for sure to come! We have to keep thinking that somehow~if only I remember this EVERY day.